To Everything There Is a Season: Turn, Turn, Turn to Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) this Sukkot
One of the privileges and responsibilities that I have as a congregational professional is serving on the faculty of the Union for Reform Judaism's summer camps.
A Different Type of Sukkah
I hate camping. The thought of sleeping on the hard ground among the bugs makes my skin crawl.
What a House Is
The home-repair season is drawing to a close in my part of the country, and I still have not fixed my roof. That omission weighs on me. I want to protect my household and my house; I think each of us does. So we build our roofs and our walls and try to live safely. But Rav Kook is right: That is not enough. Destruction can still come, whether by flood or by poverty or by airplane. Sukkot reminds us of the vulnerability with which we live.
Chol HaMo-eid Sukkot: A Tabernacle of Torah for Everyone
It was a quiet Jerusalem day at the Wall, one of those brutally hot June afternoons with the sun beating down on the sandy hues of Jerusalem stone. The day seemed familiar yet something was different.
Holding Opposites
This Shabbat is known as Chol HaMo-eid Sukkot. The very description is curious. Sukkot is a holiday that lasts for seven days.
Hakol Havel, "Everything Is Breath"
Focal Point
- What has been will be, what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.
Making a B'rachah Out of Brokenness
Focal Point
Adonai said to Moses: "Carve two tablets of stone like the first, and I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you shattered." (Exodus 34:1)
Taking Stock of God's Bounty
Oneg Shabbat, the Pesach seder, b'nei mitzvah buffets-there is hardly a present-day holiday or life-cycle celebration that isn't intimately connected with food. Even our fast days are about food! But there is an ancient precedent for this ongoing attention to what's on the table.
Is Seeing the Same as Believing?
For most of our congregations, the procession of Torah scrolls on Simchat Torah will begin with a textual reminder that Israel "knows" that Adonai is God.
Why Firstborns Are Such a Big Deal in the Torah
The research abounds: birth order has an impact on development. The Internet teems with articles on expected personality traits for firstborn and later-born children and, in a rare moment of consensus, experts agree that birth order matters.1 It influences a child’s need for attention, interest in interacting with adults versus peers, reactions to challenge and pressure, and relationship with parents. As the mother of two young sons (and a firstborn myself), I see evidence of this research daily and often wonder how birth order will affect my children’s lives.
Birth order matters in Parashat Bo, too. Bo begins with the final four plagues, culminating in that infamous, horrifying last plague: makat b’chorot, the killing of the firstborn. God takes this concept to its extreme, condemning every single firstborn — whether human or animal — to perish. The Israelite firstborns were saved by placing lambs’ blood on their doors.